Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) found that White House advisers had a great deal to do with the writing of the rules

Last week, 30 U.S. senators (29 of which were Democrats) gave President Barack Obama their support for the 54.5 mpg fuel standard by 2025. However, House Republicans still had a bone to pick with these new rules.

The new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) proposal, which was introduced by the Obama administration, the state of California and major automakers, aims to increase the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. to 54.5 mpg by 2025 in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the U.S.' dependency on foreign oil.

When the new rules were initially proposed last year, major automakers like Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Chrysler backed it. However, the standard had some strong opposition from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), who said the new rules would tack an extra $5,000 to the sticker price of new vehicles in 2025, as well as Republicans who worked to block the standard last fall because they believed that it would regulate many new vehicles that sell for under $15,000 entirely out of existence.

Now, despite the rules getting the green light from 30 U.S. senators, House Republicans still have beef with the new rules. More specifically, GOP has been looking into how involved Obama's advisers were in the development of the new 2017-2025 fuel efficiency standards.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said he investigated Obama's advisers' involvement last August when speaking to White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler.

"Your response seemed to imply that the Executive Office of the President was not significantly involved in the development of these fuel economy/greenhouse gas emissions standards," Issa wrote to Ruemmler.

As it turns out, Issa's investigation discovered that there was indeed substantial participation in the development of the new standards by the White House's Office of Management and Budget, Domestic Policy Council, National Economic Council and Council of Economic Quality.

Ron Bloom, a White House adviser under the Obama administration, spent weeks trying to negotiate with automakers for support regarding the 54.5 mpg by 2025 standard. Bloom also spoke with lobbyists daily in July 2011, ad former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley met with Ford CEO Alan Mulally.

quote: Gas prices are affected by DEMAND, and no president of the US can prevent the demand from China, India, and other developing Southeast Asian countries from rising..

That same demand existed when Bush was in office, you know, when gas was $1.85 when he left office?

Cord, how do you ease demand? You INCREASE supply. If you think blocking 85% of our offshore drilling, blocking the Keystone project, and blocking exploration of oil doesn't effect prices you're nuts.

Pretending that we're 100% at the mercy of oil demand from China and other countries, while sitting on massive reserves ourselves, is typical leftist nonsense. Just because Obama said so, doesn't make it true.

Oil is no different than any other commodity. It's plain and simple economics. Not voodoo or mystical nonsense you guys keep cooking up to explain our energy crisis away.

You people are shameless. Obama and the Democrats BLASTED Bush on gas prices during the campaign. Now, suddenly, President's can't have any effect on them? So which is it? Now Obama and the Democrats are complaining that Republicans are "politicizing" gas prices lol. More hypocrisy!

quote: That same demand existed when Bush was in office, you know, when gas was $1.85 when he left office?

More disingenuity from you, not surprising. That was the height of the economic recession, and it was only normal for oil prices to be down due to a lack of WORLDWIDE demand.

quote: You INCREASE supply.

It takes a very long time to increase the supply to a point that it'll make a significant difference, certainly not during a 4-year presidential term.

Besides, you save your own resources until the end, so I don't know if it's time to start drilling offshore oil yet. Not because of environmental issues, but because I think we should still save that oil for later.

Obama blasting Bush on gas prices is stupid, true. Blasting any president for gas prices is stupid unless it's because of a new tax he enacts.

quote: It takes a very long time to increase the supply to a point that it'll make a significant difference, certainly not during a 4-year presidential term.

Didn't the issue of drilling ANWR come up during the Clinton years? Back then, they argued it'd take 10 long years to bring that capacity on line. Let's not start because it takes too long. Hmm, that was 20 years ago.

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"There is no limit to the good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit." General George C. Marshall

"It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit." John Wooden

Mark Twain said, “Great things can happen when you don’t care who gets the credit.”

Presidents can have a direct effect on gas prices- it happens when you start dropping bombs on oil rich nations and speculators start getting nervous. Other than that any measures we take to increase supply could have no effect as other producers can always adjust production to keep prices high. We saw this in the California electricity crisis- California had plenty of capacity to produce more, but energy producers started shutting off generators to create supply shortages. The same thing can happen with oil refinement.

Since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, prices of crude oil have climbed steadily. It was only in the midst of the recession (when Bush left office) that prices dropped. It had little to do with his policies by that point and more to do with the fact that oil consumption, by all accounts, dropped.

I promise you the price of batteries, electronics and other commodities will go up if we start a war with China.

There's nothing voodoo about prices raising when you bomb a country heavily involved with the supply side of a commodity.

Has Obama started bombing some oil rich country that I don't know about, thusly explaining his direct effect on prices?

quote: Since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, prices of crude oil have climbed steadily. It was only in the midst of the recession (when Bush left office) that prices dropped. It had little to do with his policies by that point and more to do with the fact that oil consumption, by all accounts, dropped.

A sharp drop in crude prices in late 2008 distorted the ratio, causing an incorrect sell signal. Since then, from mid-2009 to 2011, the ratio has oscillated in a narrow range betweeen 12 and 18.

The dollar is cratering. That's what happens when somebody, by executive fiat, simply prints an extra $1T. Obama would be the executive, but you can damn well rest assured the buck don't stop there. Pansy.

How do you figure it's demand and not production capacity?Many indicators say that even though OPEC wants to limit oil production, the reality is that they can't increase it even if they wanted to...a.k.a the peak oil crowd.

Presidents can have a direct effect on gas prices- it happens when you start dropping bombs on oil rich nations and speculators start getting nervous. Other than that any measures we take to increase supply could have no effect as other producers can always adjust production to keep prices high. We saw this in the California electricity crisis- California had plenty of capacity to produce more, but energy producers started shutting off generators to create supply shortages. The same thing can happen with oil refinement.

Since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, prices of crude oil have climbed steadily. It was only in the midst of the recession (when Bush left office) that prices dropped. It had little to do with his policies by that point and more to do with the fact that oil consumption, by all accounts, dropped.

I promise you the price of batteries, electronics and other commodities will go up if we start a war with China.

There's nothing voodoo about prices raising when you bomb a country heavily involved with the supply side of a commodity.

Has Obama started bombing some oil rich country that I don't know about, thusly explaining his direct effect on prices?

Gas prices hit their all time high the last summer Bush was in office at $4.21/gal. In November when Obama won the election gas prices dropped to $1.61/gal. Did you not think anyone would check your facts? Your $1.85/gal figure is from right after Obama was elected in November, gas was $4.21 just a few month earlier. You can try to spin your bullshit any way you want but the facts don't lie and I've included links to charts with the true numbers.

If you've read any posts by Reclaimer77, you'll know that he cares NOTHING about facts. Once again, we could be talking about peanut butter and jelly, he'll ;ead the discussion to something negative about Obama. It's as if he has Obama derangement synfrome.

quote: Doesn't it suck when the facts get in the way of your shitty argument?

It sure does. Gas exceeded $4 for only 2 months out of bush's 96 month term (June and July of 2008, respectively). It only exceeded $3.20 for 7 months out of that same time frame (7% of term). It dropped to $1.67 by December of that same year.

Obama's term has seen 1 full year of prices above $3 (33% of term) and is expected to get as high as $5. Call me crazy, but by the end of 2012, Bush's numbers will seem pretty petty. That's a fact!

WFT does that have to do with anything? Firstly, I never said he had; I specifically stated.. IT EVENTUALLY WILL and possibly even see $5. Secondly, I'm defining your use of the word "Skyrocketing" as a measure of "high gas prices" vs "length of President's term." If we consider $2.50 as a "reasonable" price for one gallon of gas, then Obama takes the prize for "High Gas Prices during the presidents term." Christ dude... you're trying to play a game of "$3.86 isn't $4 so Obama wins" BS. LOL!! Keep digging!!

My charts are provided by the Energy Department; I'll stick with them.

Those spikes under Bush were caused by a natural disasters, hurricane Katrina and Rita, crippling half our countries oil refining capability and 90% of our oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. It took years to recover from that.

And this was just ONE such occasion. He doesn't just blame Bush and Cheney for high gas prices, he outright accuses them of a conspiracy to pass "laws" that make oil companies more profitable. Not that he could actually cite the name of these laws, because in actuality, none such existed. But since when did Obama ever use facts over rhetoric.

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